


Please, Stay With Me

by Cakepopple



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Langst, M/M, klance, klangst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 10:16:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16890666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cakepopple/pseuds/Cakepopple
Summary: Keith’s footsteps sounded heavily in the enemy hallway. He was running, sprinting, falling over himself to get there in time. He heard another scream reverberate off the walls, and he pushed his legs to go faster. They burned, an overwhelming sting that came to a boil in his calves. His limbs weren’t responding as quickly as his mind was giving orders, and he ran into a wall as he turned down another corridor. More screams came and he swore he couldn’t handle any more. One more and he’d crumble.Another came and he cracked, tears bubbling over his lashes and down his cheeks. He let out his own agonized shout in retaliation.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I worked hard on this one! Hope you enjoy!

   It was warm, but not unpleasantly so. A soft heat against his backside, like a sunbeam had found a home along his spine. It branched off his back, wrapping around his middle and warming his stomach as well. Lance shut his eyes harshly, hoping he could force himself back into slumber and melt into the comfort behind him. He felt secure in Keith’s arms. He focused on the pitter patter of summer rain on his roof, letting it lull him back into his dreams. Then an alarm went off and his warmth left. He groaned softly, cracking his eyes open slightly. He watched his boyfriend of two years get out of bed and stretch, popping most of the bones in his spine as he did. The brunet on the bed cringed in response. Keith was wandering around the room, now, searching for his clothes for the day.

   “C’mon,” Lance whined. “Five more minutes?” Keith hummed tiredly. He might get up early, but anyone could tell by the way he dragged his feet, he wasn’t a morning person. 

   “If I don’t get up, no one’s gonna make breakfast, babe,” he murmured, slipping a shirt over his head. The man approached Lance, bending over to press a kiss to his forehead. He’d showered the night before, but he still had a scent that was distinctly him, not just the fresh smell of the lemon scented soap they shared. Lance breathed it in happily, but wished it lingered around after Keith started getting dressed again. “You’re welcome to go back to sleep, though,” the black paladin added, turning to give his boyfriend a small smile while sliding a belt through the loops in his pants. 

   Lance didn’t accept that offer, deciding instead to follow Keith to the kitchen. He trailed behind him, still half asleep and in his pajamas. He hit the wall at least three times. By the time he managed to make it to the room, his boyfriend was already cracking eggs to make pancakes, and he was humming cutely. It was hard to make out what the song was, but it was eventually recognizable as Remember Me. The two had watched Coco the night before, and apparently, the songs stuck around while they slept.

   “You hate mornings,” the red paladin muttered grumpily, stumbling to stand next to the current chef. “What has you happy enough to hum?” Keith was startled to hear Lance up and about, but he wasn’t displeased. He continued whisking the batter as he answered.

   “I like waking up next to you,” he said simply, moving to the pan on the stove. He poured a few pancakes and continued, “I get reminded of it every morning you ask me to stay in bed longer.”

   “Gross. You sap.” Despite his words, Lance was smiling as he caught up with Keith. Said man opened his arms, knowing the shorter of the two wanted to press his nose to the taller’s neck and rest his eyes. The red paladin accepted the unspoken invitation and let his boyfriend stretch his arms on either side of him to work the stove while they hugged. There were a few minutes of comfortable silence when Lance swore he would have been able to pass out in Keith’s arms, had it not been for the alluring smell of breakfast. He decided to break the silence. “I like it too.”

   Eventually, the brunet wandered back into the bedroom to shower and get dressed. None of his own shirts struck his fancy that day, and he decided on one of Keith’s, instead. It was plain and black, and he had plenty of his own, but he didn’t really want those. He wanted the softened fabric of his boyfriend’s cheap, Target shirts. It was too big on him, he’d never beefed up the same way his boyfriend had. He had always been jealous of the stupid, rippling muscles and the dumb, grizzled features, but he never mentioned his envy. And he certainly didn’t complain about seeing the objects of his envy at  _ least _ twice a day, when his boyfriend got changed. He put on his favorite pair of shorts, since he’d shaved his legs that morning and they were too smooth and soft not to show off. Once he was ready for the day, he meandered back to the kitchen.

   Keith had finished the pancakes, poured orange juice for the both of them, and was now packaging the leftover pancakes for the rest of the week. When he finished, he joined Lance at the table and they both started to eat. 

   “So,” Keith started, mouth full. “Do you wanna get a cat?” Lance choked on his pancakes, surprised by the sudden topic of a pet. Before he had a chance to ask about it, though, his boyfriend explained his thought process. He dragged his fork along his plate and poked at his food while he did, trying to hide red ears and a faint pout. “Well, I mean, we’re both getting older-” Keith shifted the direction of his sentence when Lance raised his eyebrows. “I mean we’re not old! I’m twenty four, you’re twenty one, we’re still young! But, I mean, I figure we’re old enough to have a stable hold on our jobs at the Garrison. And we have a house, and we can afford a pet, and we’re responsible enough, and cats are kinda low maintenance. They take care of themselves a decent amount.” He was starting to ramble, clearly regretting his suggestion and the embarrassment of having to explain it. 

   “I’d love to get a cat.” Keith smiled, thankful his social torture was over. He focused again on eating his breakfast, though now it was mangled beyond any recognition of being a pancake. The rest of the meal passed in comfortable silence. Lance took both of their dishes to the sink, scrubbing the syrup off before putting them in the dishwasher. While he did that, Keith put his hair into a ponytail. 

   He’d grown his hair out for a lot of reasons. He liked it long, for starters; there’s no way he’d get an undercut like Lance had. When his boyfriend revealed that he  _ also _ liked it long, he’d been ecstatic, until the statement was finished. “But it’s not even really  _ long,  _ it’s at that odd, in-between,  _ mullet-y _ length,” Keith remembered him saying. “You should grow it out!” He’d never grown it past his shoulders, but he’d considered it a few times. The way the brunet ran his nails along his scalp and through his hair, though. It sealed the deal. He knew long hair meant more time with Lance close, since he always insisted on being the one to put products in it. How could he turn that down?

   “Wanna take the bike today?” Lance blinked, confused. They rarely took Keith’s motorcycle, since the black paladin usually only used it to look cool. That meant when he wanted to show off in front of Griffin. The red paladin didn’t know it, but the bike wasn’t what he was showing off; it was the cute boy he had clinging to his waist. Griffin hadn’t had any real romantic success, and Keith still bore some disdain for him from when they were children, so he took the low blow. Today, though, he just wanted to be close to Lance on their way to work. 

   The early morning rain stopped and they ended up taking the bike. After parking it, they headed to main hall, holding hands as they went. That’s where they went every morning, to receive orders for the day. It had been three years since their entrance into the universal war and two since the Galra empire had been defeated. The only remaining Galra were peaceful and as a result, there wasn’t a daily need for Voltron, anymore, so they mostly went on peaceful missions as war veterans, instead. They coordinated alliances between alien races, handled space bandits, gave presentations to kids, and other things like that. Today, however, when they met up with the other paladins at the Garrison, there were a lot more people in the discussion room than usual. Keith and Lance shared concerned looks, before Shiro noticed their arrival and began an announcement.

   “We’ve recently received a distress signal,” he began, reading off a tablet in front of him. That news alone wasn’t concerning, but considering the number of people in the room, there was obviously something more to it. “It’s from an area that used to be Galran Empire territory, and that alone isn’t suspicious, but it’s also heavily populated by those intergalactic mobsters we’ve been fighting.” Everyone in the room groaned.

   The mobsters weren’t really a threat to Earth; they typically preyed on much more fragile planets. That said, they were a real thorn in the Garrison’s side, and they always seemed to show up at the most inopportune times. They did a bit of stealing, a bit of smuggling, and a lot of killing. They were, in current times, the most present threat in well traveled space. 

   A map popped up in the middle of the room. “Here’s where the criminal threat is,” Shiro said, swinging his arm in a wide circle around a highlighted area of the map. “Here’s where the distress signal is coming from.” He pressed something on his tablet and a blinking yellow light appeared smack dab in the middle of the highlighted area. There were murmurs in the room, some suggesting the signal was a trap, others reminding that it was there duty to examine it regardless. A woman cleared her throat to interrupt them all. Heels echoed in the room as Pidge took a stand in front of the crowd, next to Shiro. Lance didn’t know when she’d started wearing heels, but he assumed the reason was because even at 19, she remained one of the shortest people in the Garrison.

   “Now, I’ve been listening to the pattern of beeps from this thing.” She brushed her bangs farther up her forehead, shifted her glasses, and tapped on her own tablet. “And obviously they’re not any Earth morse code, but they’re kinda like one alien race’s equivalent to morse code. It’s been repeating the number fifty seven nonstop, along with the standard distress signal beeps.” 

   “We assume that’s a number telling us the number of people they have on board, and with such a large number, we thought it best to send the paladins, as their ships are the largest,” Shiro finished. “With that, the rest of you are excused, but we’d like you to keep your ears open, in case we need you. Dismissed.”

   The paladins, along with Shiro, reconvened in the middle of the room. They all looked mostly the same as when they started their journeys, but they did change some. Allura had cut her hair shorter, and it fell in curls by her chin. Hunk had a scar or two on his face, but he still looked as squishable and lovable as always, despite the stereotypical thug scars. Shiro had more noticeable bags under his eyes, but was unchanged other than that. They began to discuss the details of their two day mission.

   The meeting ended shortly after it started; it didn’t take long to explain such a simple mission plan. The ships were loaded with goods by then, and they got to work on loading themselves, too. Once on board, they changed into their armor. They’d replaced armor a few times since becoming paladins, but they always felt the same. The fabric felt and smelled familiar; the cold of the metal seemed to be permanently attached to their skin. While the armor had its own nostalgic scent, Lance still found himself feeling disappointed when he was no longer able to smell Keith’s shirt. 

   A knock echoed throughout the cockpit of the red lion. Lance stepped out of his lion, and was confused to find his boyfriend standing in front of him. He looked frustrated, but in a cute way. His hair was out of his ponytail, now, and it was a in a mess down his back. Keith huffed in frustration. He gestured to his unruly hair, then to the helmet in one of his hands. The red paladin laughed, before motioning for Keith to turn around. He always kept hair ties on his wrists to help during moments like these, when his boyfriend was careless and forgot hair ties and was too easily angered to handle the knots. With his armor on, though, he couldn’t reach them, so he popped back into his lion to grab some clips and ties. 

   He walked back to his leader, and no words were spoken. None needed to be. It was silent other than the quiet and hollow echo of his metal shoes on the metal floor. When he reached Keith, he ran his hands through the knots in the man’s raven hair. Then he braided it and curled it into a bun behind his head. His boyfriend, recognizing that his hair was finished, turned back around. Lance pressed a kiss to his nose, then took the red helmet from Keith’s arms to put on his head. Keith stopped him to return the affection, before sliding the helmet on himself. With that, he left.

   In another few minutes, each of the paladins were in their pilot chairs. A few more minutes and they were off the Earth. After that, comms were opened, and casual conversation flowed between lions. They chatted about their current home situations, mostly, but talk of the mission was woven in. It made the travel time pass quickly and before they knew it, they’d been up over fifteen hours and it was time to sleep before the rescue the next day.

   “Goodnight, guys,” Keith said, shutting his video feed off. A chorus of goodnights followed, and he turned the audio off as well. He was working on finding a more comfortable position in his chair to sleep, when an incoming call appeared on the screen in front of him. It was Lance. He answered it. “What’s up, Lance?”

   “I just wanted to talk to you for a bit,” the man answered, flashing a bright smile Keith couldn’t see, but could definitely hear. “You’ve been so close and far at the same time! I miss you!”

   “Lance, it hasn’t even been twenty four hours.” Keith spoke in a tone that sounded like scolding, but the inkling of a grin on his face told a different story. He popped his neck in preparation of falling asleep. He heard the red paladin make a disgusted noise.

   “I know, I just wanted to say goodnight to my boyfriend.”

   “You already did,” he murmured monotonously. He was glad the video was off, his cheeks were an embarrassing red, for sure. 

   “Ugh, nevermind,” Lance said, letting it hang on a disappointed breath of air. 

   “Hey, I’m just messing with you,” Keith comforted softly. “I miss you, too.” Lance didn’t respond, but Keith knew it was because he was smiling. After a couple more seconds of silence, they resumed conversation, talking about nothing in particular. They turned on cameras, and for a good ten minutes they came up with stupid constellation names and stories for the star groups going by. Keith’s favorite was the “space slug” Lance had imagined up and named Shlorp. On its own, it wasn’t all that funny, but with the expressions and voices his boyfriend used, it was everything. He was wheezing with laughter by the end of the story, and had too many tears to see the fond look his boyfriend was giving him. 

   The curve to Keith’s cheeks was mesmerizing. The reflection of the stars in his watering eyes was so bright, Lance could make it out through his tinted visor. The lift of his shoulders looked so sincere, so very unlike the lone wolf he’d known so many years ago. It brought a swell of pride to his heart when he thought about how  _ he _ was the reason for that smile and that sweet, obnoxious,  _ perfect _ laugh. He hung his head to hide his own tears when he was reminded that, yes, that beautiful man was his own perfect boyfriend. 

   Once they finished their little game, the conversation slowed. The gaps of silence between words became longer and longer, and Keith watched the brunet on his screen begin to drift off. Every now and then, right when he was on the cusp of passing out, his eyes would briefly flutter open, and he’d shake his head in an attempt to wake up fully. It never worked, and after about five sets of that, Keith could hear his breathing steady into a soft snore. He smiled, said his goodnights and declarations of love to the sleeping man, and shut the camera off. Something about the audio was comforting, like Lance was right next to him, so he left it on. Soon enough, his own breaths had drifted into the same calming pattern.

   His waking wasn’t as pleasant. It came from the demanding beeps a phone gives off when two people are calling at once. He squinted at the face on his screen, trying to identify the caller in his barely awake haze. It was Pidge. He reluctantly ended the soft breaths from Lance and answered her call instead. 

   “Who were you calling at this hour?” She seemed frustrated. “I had to call you, like, four times before you picked up!”

   “I was talking to Lance,” he answered, hoping he wouldn’t have to open up about his mushy appreciation of sleeping next to Lance. At least not to her. He’d happily tell his boyfriend whenever he wanted. Telling Lance he was appreciated was one of his favorite activities. It always elicited the cutest reactions. One time, Lance had started crying and thanking him, which filled Keith with both concern and adoration. 

   “Ew, gross, I shouldn’t have asked.” She made an exaggerated noise of disgust. “Anyway, I called to tell you we’re here, not to learn about how you called Lance to talk about mushy stuff together.” Keith wasn’t about to make things worse by correcting her. He didn’t want to explain that he was actually on the phone with Lance to feel closer to him, and they hadn’t actually spoken that morning. He thanked her, before opening the comms to everyone. 

   As they approached the source of the distress signal, Lance got a little nervous. Something about the whole situation made his skin crawl. Maybe it was the fact that, despite being abandoned, the ship was in perfect condition. Or maybe it was because he knew it should be heavily populated by the Garrison’s current largest enemy, but it was empty. Whatever the reason, he had begun to focus on the blood throbbing against his ears and the way it was speeding up. 

   He supposed he’d gotten too comfortable. He spent every night next to a man who loved him and who never failed to remind him of that, he could visit his little nieces and nephews whenever he wanted, and he hardly ever had to go on dangerous missions, anymore. Even though this mission was supposed to be an easy, quick, in and out type, being so far from what he’d become accustomed to was making him panicky. All they had to do was bring the people back to Earth, then wormhole them to their home planets, so why was he nervous? 

   It was all too easy. The area, though it was supposed to be a criminal hotspot, was barren. There was no trouble getting from Earth to the abandoned ship and certainly no trouble pulling up next to it. The paladins all made sure their suits were completely airtight, before they left their lions to hop on board the ship. Pidge had to tap into the technology of the ship to get the doors to open. They entered through an airtight room, which briefly passed Keith’s mind as strange, since the long dead ship shouldn’t have any need for precautions like that. The doors shut behind them, and Lance jogged ahead to start looking for the people in need.

   “That’s strange,” Hunk murmured once Lance had left.

   “What is?” Keith made his way over to the yellow paladin, looking over his shoulder at the tablet he was fumbling with. He squinted at the screen, not understanding what the numbers and letter combinations meant. After a second, he recognized some of them as abbreviations for elements. He grinned, proud he remembered at least a little bit of his sophomore chemistry class. 

   “The air in here is completely breathable.” Hunk swung his finger lazily over the different elements on the screen, which showed what Keith could only assume were the contents of the air. “I don’t really know why the ship is running exactly how it should when there’s no one here to maintain it.”

   It  _ was _ strange, but they couldn’t let it disturb the mission. Keith was glad Lance hadn’t heard Hunk, though. It would have only made him more nervous. He thought everything was suspiciously easy this mission, so obviously a working ship in place of an abandoned one wouldn’t perish that thought. Now, Keith found himself getting just as anxious as Lance had been. He ran down the hallway after his boyfriend, not wanting him out of his sight when he was so unsure of the situation. The black paladin fell into step next to him.

   “Hello?” Lance’s shouted words rebounded off the empty walls of the ship. A muffled response came immediately after. The two men steered themselves in its direction. They found the source quickly, and sure enough, there seemed to be about fifty seven people present. “Are any of you injured?” Lance cut right to the chase with his question, and was doing a headcount immediately after asking it. No one mentioned any injuries.

   “How did you all get here?” The red paladin had finished his counting, and was leading the aliens to the other paladins.

   “We’re not really sure. We all just, well, woke up here,” One of them answered. Keith gave them a suspicious look. The situation was becoming less and less believable, and he was hesitant to trust any of the people he was supposed to be saving. It was his job to save them, though, so he hurriedly guided them onto the lions. They couldn’t all fit in one ship, so they were split between the two legs, Blue and Yellow. The whole process took no more than half an hour, but Keith was completely ready for it to be over when he settled into his chair once more. 

   “Hey, I’m gonna do one last run through the ship to check for more people,” Lance said over the comms. “Is that alright?” The leader wasn’t really comfortable agreeing, but he had no basis for refusal. It was just a feeling in his gut, and he, after returning to his position as leader, swore he would start leading with a level head rather than a reckless instinct. 

   “Yeah, just be careful. We’ll fly slow so you can catch up.” His boyfriend thanked him briefly, before promising to be careful. Even with that, though, Keith found it hard to motivate himself to leave. He glanced at the red lion, then started flying after the others, who had already left. 

   “Oh, hey, Lance?” Pidge came over the comms this time. “Could you check for clues on how everyone got here, too? They say they don’t know.” The boy answered affirmatively.

   “Try checking the computer systems in the cockpit,” Allura suggested. “Hunk said the ship seems to be operational, so maybe there’s camera feed.” He agreed to that too.

   After that, the comms were silent. Everyone was focusing on their own things. Lance hummed as he checked down each hallway, getting closer to the front of the ship, where he might find the camera feed. He rolled Allura’s words around in his head.  _ Operational?  _ He felt his anxiety sneaking up on him, so he started focusing on the number of floor panels he passed, instead. The red paladin counted them in his head, so the numbers would fill his thoughts, not the concerns. He made it to the cockpit, and the motion sensor opened the door.  _ Guess it really is operational. _ The man felt a sharp and brief pain in his back. Figuring it was just the metal of his armor pinching his skin, he ignored it entirely.

   He didn’t even get to the main computer, before his head started throbbing. Queasiness snuck up on him fast and hit him hard. The metal armor on his legs clanged as his knees hit the ground and his hands were quick to follow. It felt like no air was reaching his lungs; like when you run too far too fast, and your breaths seem to die before giving you any oxygen. He ripped his helmet off and threw it to the side, not thinking about whether or not the air was breathable. It was an action he regretted, when he realized he’d torn his contact with the team off with it. The panic of no communication outweighed his pain and sickness in that moment, and he scrambled to get his helmet back, but the room went dark before he could.

   Lance determined that he wasn’t out for long, when the room came back into a fuzzy line of sight. His helmet was still gone, and there were people he didn’t know at the helm of the ship. But as he looked at the camera feed from outside the ship, he saw that the lions weren’t far away. His head was still throbbing and he felt ill whenever he shifted, otherwise he’d make a run for it. He knew he wouldn’t make it far if he tried. Settling for observing his surroundings, he noticed where his helmet had ended up. It was on a table not far from his current spot on the floor, and next to it was an empty syringe. With that, he managed to piece together what had happened. The sting in his spine wasn’t his armor, after all. He’d have to recommend better coverage in the next upgrade of the armor; the fabric parts clearly weren’t cutting it.

   It was then he noticed how bold that thought was. He really  _ had _ gotten too comfortable if he was already making plans of what he’d say after his reunion with the team, when they’d still yet to even notice his disappearance. The thought seemed to get bolder, when he watched a wormhole open in front of the windshield.


	2. Chapter 2

   Keith was aware that Lance had been quiet for a while, but he didn’t think much of it, since he knew the man was focusing on the mission. He’d left his comms on while he was humming, so when the humming stopped, the black paladin assumed it was because he’d realized his mistake and had been embarrassed. He glanced out his window and at the ship behind him, trying to see if the lion had pulled out of where it was parked on the ship. It hadn’t. When he started to turn his gaze in front of him once more, his eyes were drawn back to the same spot. The familiar glow of a wormhole had appeared, and it wasn’t until the “abandoned” ship had left, that he realized the implications of such an event.

   His breath went stale in his throat, he whipped his lion around. What had happened? No words left his lips. At this point, the weight of confusion on his mind was heavier than the weight of concern on his heart, but that was changing quickly.

   “Lance?” The comms were silent. “Lance, what happened?” The concern was so much heavier now. “I swear to God, you had better answer now, or-” His voice gave out before the end of the line. He made the black lion go faster to the location the ship used to inhabit. Some part of him believed it was still there, that Lance hadn’t really gone anywhere. Panic was starting to make him delusional. Keith gripped the controls so hard, the metal of the gloves was leaving bruises on his skin, but he couldn’t tell. Too much adrenaline was pumping through his system; he couldn’t feel anything except fear.

   “Keith, calm down. You can’t just blindly run off,” Hunk said, reminding Keith that his whole team had heard the message intended for Lance.

   “You guys continue with the mission, I can’t leave him behind.” He sped up more, but it wasn’t in any particular direction, since he had no real idea where he was going. That said, he couldn’t sit there and do nothing.

   “We get that! We’re all worried about Lance, but you can’t chase after him on your own!” Allura snapped, the words coming out as the hisses of an angered teammate. He was being a terrible leader and he knew it, but that was still more bearable than being a terrible boyfriend.

   Pidge, realizing there was no talking their leader out of it, offered a different solution, “I’ll go with you.” Her words were final and Keith knew there was no changing her mind. He wouldn’t have wanted to anyway. “I don’t have any passengers, so I can help you find Lance. I’ll start scanning for the ship, we can probably trace the source of the distress signal from before.”

   There were no words of protest from Hunk or Allura, and with their high speeds in opposite directions, it wasn’t long before their comms were out of reach. Pidge had tracked down the other ship, reporting that it was only a few hours away. If they went at top speed, she assured him they could make it in one. It was the most agonizing hour of Keith’s life. Nothing could compare.

   He’d felt painful waiting before, but nothing this awful. Not the mornings when he wanted to get up, but he had to wait for Lance to first, since he was holding him too tight. Not the time Lance got caught in a storm while driving home from one place or another, and Keith had to hold his breath at the door until his boyfriend opened it unharmed. Not even the times when he knew Lance had a bad day, and he had to wait for his boyfriend to come home so he could make sure he pulled through his anxiety attacks.

   No, those were nothing, now.

   He’d gone hours without contact with his boyfriend, before, but this was sickening. It was at this precise moment he understood what about anxiety attacks Lance hated. He’d always thought they were just crying, but now he knew they were so much worse. His eyes were watering, and he eventually had to take his helmet off, when it began to feel like it was suffocating him. His breath was hot against his tongue, a feeling that made him want to breathe less. The numbness in his cheeks and fingertips told him he needed to breathe more, though. He was shaking too much to pilot correctly. Black took over for the time being, seemingly understanding Keith’s pain.

   “Hey, Keith,” Pidge reached out to him, since they were flying close enough together for their comms to be open. “I know you’re worried. Do you, I dunno, wanna talk about it?” Keith forced a gulp of air down his throat, then back out on the airwaves of his response.

   “Aren’t you worried?” It came out more aggressive than he wanted or meant it to be.

   “Of course I am! He and Hunk were the first friends I had, like, ever. I just,” she stopped to think about what she wanted to say next. “I know it’s different when it’s someone you like _romantically._ And not to embarrass you, but your crying hasn’t exactly been silent.” It embarrassed Keith anyway. He was supposed to be the leader, the strong one, not the crying one.

   “I just want him to be okay,” was all he said.

   “Me too.”

   Those were the only words they exchanged, but somehow, they helped him a great deal. They reminded him that he wasn’t alone. The trip was still agonizing, but it wasn’t as suffocating. He was confident he could save Lance, even on his own, so with the added help of the green paladin, he was certain they’d get him back. He’d be alright. And it was then he realized just what Lance meant to him. The determination in his veins was so strong; the sacrifices he was willing to make were so large. He was willing to give everything he owned, if that’s what it took for his boyfriend to make it home safely.

   Lance was his everything.

   His memory of the trip after his conversation with Pidge was blurry. He was too worked up to recall anything clearly. However, he could clearly remember the energy that ran up his spine when he saw the ship come into view ahead of him. The two of them sped up past maximum speed, despite the risk of overheating, and prepared for battle. The black lion’s jaw blade activated immediately, but the opposition was prepared with cannons. They might not have been very large, but their shots were precise and fast. Pinpoint aim and pinpoint pain.

   They managed to find the weakest points on the lions with every fire of their cannons. There were only about twenty on the ship, but they had the paladins on the defensive very quickly. They shot an almost constant stream, so it was impossible to find an opening to attack them. Keith’s adrenaline refused to ease up, though. He just got hastier. His hands seemed impossible to keep steady. The black paladin had always considered himself an excellent pilot, but now he figured it was only because he’d never been stressed enough. Sure, battles got him worked up and angry, but he’d never been _scared_. But this time, terror wouldn’t let go of his heart.

   He kept imagining everything that could happen to Lance if he failed. Why had they even taken him? Was it for information? He pictured all the ways they might try to get information out of his boyfriend. All the ways they’d torture him to force him to give in. Ah, but then came the scenarios where he refused to do so anyway. Now, Keith had only heard his boyfriend scream in pain a few times, but they stuck to his mind and made appearances in his nightmares. It seemed now they’d crossed into his waking thoughts, too. The faster his heart rate got, the sloppier his dodging became. He could feel his pulse everywhere; it pounded in his brain and beat against his fingertips.

   He couldn’t go so much as a second without being hit with the cannons, now, and by the looks of it, neither could Pidge. Their head on approach was getting nowhere. They couldn’t get in how they had before, the enemy was too fast. He led his lion to one side of the ship, and told Pidge to take the other. He figured with the lions so close to the ship, the enemy’s cannons wouldn’t be able to hit their targets. He was right on that account, but things still got so much worse.

   At the time they caught up with the Galra ship, it was right next to a planet with a fairly large gravitational pull. That force alone didn’t pose a problem, but when Keith found himself between it and the opposition, he began to see how quickly it could all go south. The enemy ship turned its thrusters on, propelling it in the direction of the planet. It shoved the black lion in the same direction. That push, combined with the planet’s gravity, overpowered the lion’s engines and Keith found himself spiraling to a crash landing not long after.

   The impact was strong, and he flickered out like a light the moment he hit the ground.

   Pidge watched his descent, and was faced with a tough decision. Two of her friends and teammates were in danger now, and both were close. The idea of choosing one over the other was sickening, and the more she considered it, the more impossible it seemed. So she chose situations, instead. On the one hand, Lance was in a ship with impossibly good defenses she’d yet to crack. In addition to that, there were an unknown number of fighters on board, all undoubtedly counting on her arrival in order to take her down. On the other hand, she had Keith, who’d crashed onto an unknown planet, but without invincible cannons, and, presumably, without killer criminals.

   She hated leaving Lance when he was so close, but the better choice was clear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So close, yet so far!


	3. Chapter 3

   Lance woke up when the ship jolted suddenly to one side. He hadn’t even realized he’d passed out since the wormhole opened, and even as he blinked himself back into consciousness, he couldn’t remember it. He was having trouble remembering anything.

   The paladin tried to stand up, but about halfway there, the ship rocked in the opposite direction. His head made a dull and hollow thud as it hit the wall. A corner of a wall panel was sticking out, and the sharp edge left a gash on his forehead. Prodding the injury, he scanned the room. It was entirely empty. The space was devoid of both furniture and color, the white of the walls just making the lights seem brighter.

   His head was throbbing. Lance genuinely couldn’t pick out what had caused it; so much had happened. It could have been whatever concoction they’d injected him with, still pumping through his system, or the head injury. Or the blinding light, reflecting off of every surface in the room until he felt too claustrophobic to move. He wouldn’t be able to say which it was. 

   The longer he stayed in the cell, the more he hated it. He wanted his boyfriend back. Lance wanted his siblings, his cousins, and his mom. The red paladin asked himself what he’d done to deserve this. Was he always going to be the weakest link? He caught his thoughts drifting to the deepest parts of his anxiety, and he dragged them back out. 

   By now, the ship’s turbulence had stopped. Some part of him wondered if his teammates had been the cause, if they’d come back for him. When he heard fast footsteps outside his cell, he stood up, certain it was them. They were here. There was only one set of heavy footfalls, so he knew only one person was at his door. It had to be Keith, his boyfriend would obviously make sure _he_ was the one playing hero. He was too much of a control freak to let anyone else do the boyfriend job for him. He remembered the other times everyone was worried about him, but Keith was ultimately the one to push his way to the front. 

   A year or so after he and Keith started dating, he’d gotten a fever and pains in his lower abdomen, but thought very little of them, assuming they were a bladder infection. He’d gotten them before, so he wasn’t concerned. He took the day off from work with a promise from his boyfriend and a kiss to his forehead. Keith told him he’d drive him to an urgent care to get antibiotics as soon as he got home. With that settled, he fell back asleep, but when he woke up, the pain was worse. He’d stumbled to the kitchen, crying. He was digging through the cabinet, desperate for tylenol, when the doorbell rang. His mother was paying him a visit during his lunch break. In his illness, he’d completely forgotten. Upon seeing his state, she elected not to wait for Keith, and to drive him to the doctor herself. She took him straight to the ER, skipping urgent care entirely. Good thing she did, he came to realize. The doctors told him he had appendicitis, and the next clear event he could remember was his friends crowding his hospital bed, carrying cards and flowers. 

   As he watched the cell door open, he recalled the look Keith had given him then, as he pushed through the other paladins. The concern in his features as he watched his boyfriend wake up after surgery. It was the closest Lance had seen his boyfriend come to crying in front of so many people. And he didn’t appear to be the least bit ashamed. He was focused on the man he almost lost, not on anyone or anything else. It was one of Lance’s most treasured memories; he only wished he’d had a camera to take a picture of it. 

   The idea that it was that soft look on the other side of the cell door was quickly dashed, however, when he saw who came in. It was someone he didn’t even know, not the boyfriend he wanted so much to see.

   “Hello, paladin,” the man in the doorway hissed. Lance shrunk back, falling to the floor in his disappointment. It was one of his captors before him and he felt foolish to have thought it would have been anyone else. His friends hadn’t come back. No one came after him. They’d done exactly as they should have; they’d continued on their mission. How could he have been so selfish as to wish they hadn’t? He couldn’t be top priority, not when so many innocents were in danger. Not now.  _ And not ever, _ a part of his mind added. He shook his head.

   “Why am I here?” Lance’s voice was defeated, coming out breathy and helpless. 

   “You’re a paladin,” the man at the door answered simply. 

   “But why do you need a paladin?” 

   “Well, we need the Garrison to forgive a crime of ours, and we can’t get them to do that without any leverage.” They’d committed so many crimes, so many atrocities Lance couldn’t even bring himself to think about. Why did they need this now? What could be worse than the countless murders they’d committed? Children, parents, and people even the worst criminals would spare had all fallen by their hands. How could they do worse?

   The red paladin didn’t know it, but the reason came from higher up. The criminals had been designing and testing serious weapons without the Garrison or anyone else knowing. They had plans to start their own empire. Now, however, it was only a matter of time before everyone found out. While conducting a trial of their most powerful cannon, they ended up destroying an entire planet. An entire  _ populated _ planet. An entire race of people had been eradicated, and even the most ruthless knew that genocide would not be easily forgiven. The leader of the criminal organization had offered a large sum of money to anyone who could get everyone off the hook and Lance’s captors were happy to accept the cash.

   They formulated a plan. The only way they could lure the Garrison into making such an outrageous deal was if they made certain the Garrison saw more atrocities being committed. So they drew the paladins close with hostages, just so they could watch a friend and teammate be torn away. The hostages wouldn’t have been enough, the Garrison might not have believed they had them. But if they literally saw someone being kidnapped, how could they refuse?

   Lance made the mistake of asking more questions, “Why does this crime need to be forgiven more than any other?” The criminal seemed frustrated, now. He approached the sitting man and kneeled in front of him. The red paladin cringed as his captor gripped his chin and forced him to look into his eyes, the lights behind the criminal’s head making him squint.

   “You ask too many questions. You’d better shut up, kid.” With that, he forced Lance’s head back into the wall behind him, resulting in another loud noise. This one seemed to continue to ring in his ears longer than the other had. The criminal stood up, then swung his leg into Lance’s shoulder, knocking him onto his side. He rolled him over before he placed his foot on his hostage’s head. Everything hurt. “Understand?” Lance opened his mouth to answer, but a sharp stomp to his stomach reminded him to stay quiet. He nodded, instead, and the criminal left, with a few more words thrown over his shoulder. “Figured I should let you know that we’ve alerted the Garrison of the situation and we’ve given them 24 hours to respond.” 

_    Or what? _ Lance wondered. Would they kill him? He was their only leverage, so he doubted it, but he still feared what they could do to him. You could do a lot to a man without killing him. The paladin wondered if anyone else was scared for him. He worried Keith was panicking, or was acting hotheaded and irrational. The thought of his boyfriend acting reckless and getting hurt was scarier than anything these intergalactic bastards could do to him. But scarier still, was the thought that he wasn’t worried at all. His boyfriend shrugging off his capture was more horrifying than anything else that could happen. He’d rather die than be forgotten like that. 

   He tried to fall asleep, tried to calm down by napping, but he couldn’t. The lights were too bright and his anxiety was too loud. He ended up crying, instead, feeling the concerns of being the seventh wheel creeping back into his mind. He thought he’d dispelled them many years ago, but the pain that clung to his chest, despite every effort to throw it off, told him otherwise. 

   There was no way he was sleeping, now.


	4. Chapter 4

   Keith’s footsteps sounded heavily in the enemy hallway. He was running, sprinting, falling over himself to get there in time. He heard another scream reverberate off the walls, and he pushed his legs to go faster. They burned, an overwhelming sting that came to a boil in his calves. His limbs weren’t responding as quickly as his mind was giving orders, and he ran into a wall as he turned down another corridor. More screams came and he swore he couldn’t handle any more. One more and he’d crumble. 

   Another came and he cracked, tears bubbling over his lashes and down his cheeks. He let out his own agonized shout in retaliation. What were they doing to him? How could such terrible sounds be coming from such a perfect man? How could anyone bring themselves to drag those noises out of someone like Lance? Keith wasn’t fast enough, but he couldn’t have gone any faster, either. He found the source of the screams, but they’d stopped. The body in front of him was silent, and as he fell next to it, he realized it would always be. He was too late.

   His sobbing was painful, so much so that he forgot the burning in his legs. He held Lance close, regret spilling from his throat on the backs of apologies and wails. It was all his fault, he reminded himself. There had to have been some solution he missed. A training program he skipped that would’ve made him fast enough, or a shortcut he could have taken to make it in time. He was in too much pain to count all the ways he could have avoided this. It was all his fault, and he would have to live with the consequences of that for the rest of his life. 

   He woke up in pain. The burn in his legs, the aching in his chest, the loss, they all felt so real. They lingered past his waking, and he cried a few minutes longer. After that, he was angry. No, that didn’t cover it; he was seething. His dream felt like it was as good as reality. His plan to take down the enemy was ill conceived, and now that nightmare might come to fruition. When he attacked the Galra ship, he was so close, so unbearably close, to saving his boyfriend. But he fell short. Lance was going to have to suffer through things Keith couldn’t even  _ imagine _ , all because he didn’t think his plan through. He felt so useless, fiddling with the unresponsive controls of the black lion. He worked through his emotional agony, trying to get his ship started again. There was no time to waste, a fact he kept reminding himself of as he shuffled about the cockpit, kicking things that failed to work. Time was a luxury Lance didn’t have.

   He marched out of his lion and into the wilderness of the planet to assess the damage on the outside of his ship. Keith couldn’t see any obvious damage, and his frustration climbed higher in his throat. Throwing himself to the ground, he looked away from his ship and to the scenery around him instead. Everything was dusted with snow, or something that looked to be snow. The trees wound in circles like corkscrews, and their trunks grew in a variety of bright colors. Keith reached a hand to the powder on the ground next to him and crushed it into a ball. Grinding his fingers together, he let it flutter into his lap. 

   A vexed shout tumbled from his lips. He was stuck on this icy planet without any communication or resources, he had no idea how to fix his ship, and Pidge was left to save Lance on her own. The black paladin forced himself up and stormed to one of the swirling trees. He kicked it, then flopped back to the ground next to it and ducked his head into his hands. A sense of dread hung over him and mixed with his guilt. He had no way of knowing what was going on. 

   “Hey.” His head flew up and his hands went to his blade. When he recognized the small stature of his green-clad companion, he pushed himself off the ground once more. His mouth fell open and slammed shut a few times, as he scanned the area for his favorite mop of brown hair. He blinked his watering eyes when he found nothing. 

   “Where is he?” Keith put his hands on the woman’s shoulders, desperately searching through her helmet for some sort of an answer on her face. He saw her furrow her eyebrows.

   “Who?” 

   “Lance!” Keith was exasperated. He felt the need to drag his hands through his hair and yank it to ground himself. The man settled for gripping the sides of his helmet. Pidge pulled out a tablet and tapped it a few times.

   “The distress beacon is still on, and it’s moving at a very slow place, so he’s in pretty much the same place as before,” she answered, before clipping the device to her hip once more.

   “Why the hell are you here, then?” Keith felt more fear scrape its way up his spine. He’d taken some level of comfort in knowing that Lance would be rescued by someone, even though it wasn’t going to be him. Before he was sure that Lance at least had Pidge coming after him, but now… The back of his throat stung as tears tried to escape from behind his eyes.

   “I couldn’t have gone in alone, Keith. I wouldn’t have done anyone any good.” The man felt like screaming at her. Deep down, he knew she was right, but did it have to be in such an infuriating way? At his boyfriend’s expense? He swung his leg at the silver substance at his feet, feeling utterly useless. If he’d been younger, if he’d been more reckless like before he was the leader, he was certain he would have taken it out on the woman in front of him. He would have sworn and yelled. He would have screamed until his lungs were shriveled and his legs gave out under him. But he was older than that angry boy, now. His impulses were still the same as then, but he managed to push them down. 

   He sighed. “Right. Do you think you could fix the black lion, then? I can’t get anything to work.” She nodded and the two made their way over to the ship. The pseudo-snow under their shoes didn’t crunch the same way normal snow did. It sounded more like scattering flour than a crunch. Keith saw a distant sun drift towards the horizon, casting a pink glow across the glittering snow. The whole planet was soft and beautiful in a way that made him miss Lance more than he already did. He made a promise to himself to bring his boyfriend here some time, once he was safe again. 

   They stepped into his lion, and Pidge got to work finding the problem. She did so quickly, and told Keith as much. She assured him she had enough spare junk on her lion to make some sort of temporary repair, before scurrying off to grab it. He trailed behind her, numb to the cold gripping his skin through the thin fabric over his fingertips. The man watched her run about her messy cockpit, grabbing seemingly random things and shoving them in a cardboard box she’d placed in his arms.

   Everything Keith did was distracted. He dragged his feet as he followed the woman back to the black lion. His eyes watched the reflection of the stars on the snow, not the path he was drifting along. Only when his toes kicked the jaw of his lion did he wake up from his haze. Pidge snatched the box back and placed it inside. 

   “Why don’t you head back to my lion to get some food and sleep? You look like you need it.” From her vantage point on the incline of the lion’s jaw, she was taller than Keith. She placed her hands on his shoulders. “It’ll be done by this planet’s morning, and we can get him then, okay?” Days seemed to flow more quickly here, so he deemed her offer acceptable and regretfully meandered to the green lion. 

   He slumped against the wall when he made it there, finding himself too nervous to search for any appetite, like Pidge had expected him to do. Exhaustion had carved a path under his eyes, and only now was it catching up with him. The adrenaline from battling and crashing was gone, and he felt its absence wrack his body with drowsiness. Fears of more nightmares plagued his mind, though, and he couldn’t bring himself to shut his eyes for longer than a second. He noticed the tracker tablet protruding from the edge of the pilot’s chair. Pidge must have left it there.

   Crawling over, he pulled it off the chair and into his lap. Keith turned it on and watched the blinking yellow light flit farther and farther from where he was. The process was hypnotic; a repetition that had his mind counting the seconds between blinks. It worked much like counting sheep would, and he found the exhaustion from before finally forcing his eyelids down.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little violent? But I never make things too violent, so I only suggest you stop reading if you feel uncomfortable continuing!

   His head was throbbing. It seemed to be a permanent ache, by now. Lance was certain he’d been awake in his cell for hours and his tears had run out a long time ago. He rocked his body forward and back, cradling his bruised stomach. His eyes were trained firmly to the ground, avoiding the blinding lights above him that only seemed to make his migraine worse. 

   The paladin jumped when his cell door opened again. Praying it was news of the Garrison’s response, he forced his gaze upward and attempted to withstand the overpowering shimmering in the room. There was a woman at the door, an unhappy woman, and she took large strides towards the sitting boy. She forced him up, but all he could bring himself to care about was the hunger digging its claws into his stomach. He hadn’t eaten in so long.

   He tumbled after her, dragged along by a tight grip to his wrist. He saw his skin under her fingers turn white from the strength she was using. They turned through countless corridors and at every turn, he asked himself if they’d been through that hallway before. Surely they were winding in circles. If he weren’t so out of it, he would have bothered to remember the paths they were taking so he could escape, but everything ached too much. 

   Eventually, he was yanked to a stop and manhandled into the cockpit. 

   “Hello again, paladin.” Had he met the person speaking to him? Everything was blurry, he couldn’t remember much of anything at the moment. He remained silent, eyelids falling slowly over his dull orbs. It was meant to just be a blink, really, but when he had shut his eyes before, in the cell, he could still see the flickering lights around him. In here, though, he saw nothing but the peaceful darkness of the back of his eyelids. There was a jab to his bruised stomach and the light came rushing back as he opened his eyes in response.

   “Now, I know what you’re hoping,” someone said. “You think your precious Garrison has answered and someone is going to come in here and be your knight in shining armor.” Lance stared emptily, trying not to let the speaker see how very right he was. His mind chanted Keith’s name, praying he was going to be the one to come for him. There was no one he trusted more, on or off the battlefield. “I said  _ hoping,  _ dumbass.” The words made his heart sting. He wasn’t the dumb one, he wasn’t the dumb one--

   “Listen kid, no one’s answered,” a female voice sounded. “In fact, it’s been about fifteen hours without so much as a peep, and we’re feeling a little  _ impatient _ ,” she drawled, creeping up behind him and sending a shudder up his spine. “So we’re gonna speed things up a bit. Please cooperate.”

   Honestly, cooperating was the last thing he wanted to do, but when he was thrust forward again, he came to terms with the fact that he didn’t have a choice. His sight jumped around the room, trying to find a way out. No solutions were spotted as he hit the wall. He lost balance and his vision faded for a second when he collapsed. Then it came back and he spotted a camera across the room. Things started clicking together. Their plan to “speed things up” now made sense, and he knew it wouldn’t mean anything good for him. 

   Someone stepped in front of him. He watched one of their feet swing back, before it made a landing on his shin. Lance bit his lip to keep from screaming. Someone else gripped him by his hair and tugged him to a standing position. Tears sprung to his eyes, kept in solely by the reminder that the camera was watching. Any weakness he showed the enemy, any waver in his strength, would be something his friends saw, too. Something his family saw. Something  _ Keith _ saw. He couldn’t let them see him like this. 

   He felt stinging in a line along his neck. It traced across his nape and was followed by the warm trickle of blood along his spine. The knife landed again farther down. He hadn’t noticed until then, but his armor was gone. They must have taken it off before putting him in his cell. When the blade pierced his skin again, he recalled the burn scars on his back from when he protected Coran from that explosion. His captors traced the outline of the scar with the blade. His head fell forward to hide his pained expression, and the rest of him would have gone forward, too, had no one been holding him up.

   Another tug of his hair had his watery eyes facing the camera again. He shut them, hoping to trap the tears inside, but they ended up dribbling down his cheeks, instead. Lance cursed himself. He was a paladin; he was stronger than this. A shock to his side told him a different story. A scream slipped out before he had a chance to cover his lips to stop it. His body was still shaking, even when they removed the electricity from his skin. He whimpered, no longer able to keep himself together. One of the criminals came closer to speak to him where the camera couldn’t hear.

   “It’s sad, really.” It was a woman. She nudged Lance’s chin to make him face her. He refused to look her in the eyes, shooting his view to the camera, before dragging it to the floor. Electricity sparked between his ribs again. He got the message and met her gaze. “All those friends at the Garrison, and no one’s worried about you.” Lance choked on a sob when another shock came, this one to his spine. 

   “Please,” he strangled out. The woman hummed in question, before urging him to continue with a slap to the gashes and tears on his back. He yelped, before finishing in a loud, pained cry. “Please stop!” He was roughly pushed to his knees then kicked at least five more times. Lance fell onto his stomach and she stomped on the back of his head, grinding his cheekbone against the icy floor.

   “Why should I? No one cares what happens to you.” He could take the physical pain, but he couldn’t take the insults. His depression had been dormant for over a year now, but every kick at his worth had it coming back. They did care, they had to. “After all, no one cares about the  _ dumb one. _ ” She emphasized her insult with a shock to the back of his neck, one she held there until Lance let out a wail. “You know that, don’t you?” She kept the pressure there, even after he’d screamed. He whimpered more. His sight went blurry, then got darker, before it faded entirely.

   The criminals backed off once he’d passed out. They scooped the unconscious man up, dragging him out of the cockpit and back to his cell. The woman who’d gotten him to crack walked closer to the camera, uttering a quiet warning. “We really are getting impatient. You have less than ten hours left, I hope you know that.” With that, the camera was shut off. After that, they sent the videos out. One to each of the paladins, and one to Garrison headquarters. 

   All they had to do was wait. 


	6. Chapter 6

   Hunk and Allura made it back to Earth in record time. The trip that had taken them twenty hours one way took them only fifteen the other. They knew the situation gave no time to lollygag. Once landed, they sprinted out of their lions and headed towards the meeting room, where Shiro and Iverson were undoubtedly waiting. They left the work of unloading the passengers to normal Garrison soldiers, while their scurried footsteps rushed them toward something they should have never wanted to rush toward. The two missed the incoming message spreading across both of their lions’ screens, the same message that appeared before an entire meeting room full of Garrison officers. 

   They stumbled into said meeting room, prepared to request for help rescuing Lance, but were met with a message that requested it for them. Shiro couldn’t look at the screen, the sounds alone drove him to the closest trash can. He was reminded of his time in Galra captivity every time he heard Lance scream, and his stomach was empty shortly after reaching the trash. Allura, upon entering the room, fumbled to find the edge of something to hold. She gripped the table and stared at her hand, wincing every time she heard a whimper from the video playing above her head. Hunk couldn’t tear his eyes from the footage. Even when his eyes were watering too much to see what was happening, they remained glued to the cursed screen. 

   At least it made their explaining earlier. 

   Pidge had finally fixed the black lion and was jogging to get Keith to start it up. She stepped into her lion and saw the leader asleep on the floor. Taking the tablet from his arms, she nudged him awake. His lashes fluttered a few times from under his helmet, before he understood the meaning of her presence. He stood himself up and was making his way to the exit when Pidge’s copy of the video popped onto the screen. 

   The green paladin let her line of sight flit to the screen quickly. Recognizing Lance, the weapons, the criminals, and what their joined existence implied, she hastily launched herself at the controls to shut the video down. It cut off before Keith could stop her. He stared at the blank screen in horror, seemingly recognizing the same implications. But when Pidge saw him turn to her with a look of betrayal scrawled across his features, she realized his conclusion of what to do in response had been different. He’d wanted to see it.

   “Why would you turn it off? It could have had a lead!” He made his way to look her desperately in the eyes. “Please, bring it back, I need to know what they’ve done to him.” She saw the tears on his cheeks and knew she’d made the right decision. He was destroyed with less than five seconds of footage; he’d be obliterated if he’d finished it.

   “Keith, he wouldn’t want you to see that.”

   “But what if-” The man toppled to one side, fright wrecking his balance entirely. He steadied himself against the wall. “What if that was my last chance to see him?” The words came out weaker than she expected of her leader. She’d never seen him talk and act so fragile. He’d never let himself appear so frail. Pidge placed a hand on his shoulder.

   “It wasn’t. I promise.” She pulled him in for a hug, a few tears of her own on her lashes. Keith returned the embrace, pouring his frustrations into the loving embrace he was giving his teammate. He’d make his shortcomings into something positive. He had to. He dipped his head and held his breath, trying not to break down any more than he already had. 

   Pidge missed Lance, too. The paladins were just as much her family as her actual relatives were. They all meant the world to her. When she saw Lance disappear, she felt like she’d lost her brother all over again. “Head back to your lion so we can see him in person,” she suggested, pushing back from the hug. “He’s waiting for us.”

   Keith sprinted to his lion, eagerness reinspired. Leaping up the jaw, he sat himself in the pilot’s chair. He started the ship, blood pumping and ready to take another go at saving his boyfriend. Horror returned to its place across his features when the screen flickered to life, displaying his own copy of the video he’d just barely avoided.

   Finding himself entirely unable to turn away, or even blink, he watched the footage until its completion. His nightmares seemed just that much more possible as he heard his boyfriend’s screams reverberate throughout the cockpit. Lance’s pained expressions made his stomach churn, the pleads for it to end made him beg for the same thing. He forced himself from his chair, stumbling backwards until he hit a wall. His head fell into his hands as he damned his stupidity.

   Keith never should have let him search the enemy ship on his own. He should have gone with. He should have at least stayed on the ship until Lance finished his search. The world around him spun and swam, suffocating his every thought and movement. His limbs were sluggish as he dragged himself back to his seat. Screams replayed in his mind, drowning any complete thoughts. 

   “You ready to go, leader?” Pidge sounded too chipper, too hopeful for this excursion’s success. Keith hadn’t been able to do anything right so far, and he was skeptical it would change now. If she’d seen the video, she’d have lost her confidence as well.

   Shaking hands reasserted themselves on the controls as he answered, solidly and without displaying any of his momentary weakness, “Of course.”

   He could still make it right. He had to. 


	7. Chapter 7

   Groaning, Lance hung his head. His blood sugar was too low, so his hands were shaking as he poked at an injury on his leg. They hadn’t treated any of his wounds, and seeing the lack of sanitary conditions in the cell gave him worries that even if he did survive this, he might succumb to some infection regardless. The electric shocks had left burns in random places on his body and every time he moved, he’d know if he’d located a new one by the pain rocketing along his skin. 

   He felt so helpless, so alone and cold in the empty cell. Sometimes he’d think about Keith to cheer himself up, but the words of his captors had tainted even those thoughts. When he got too cold, he thought about the way Keith would lend him his jacket. When he felt lonely, his boyfriend’s smile came to mind. And each time, his cheeks lifted momentarily, before he recalled the words from before.  _ No one cares about the dumb one.  _ His smile would fall, his arms would wrap more tightly around his figure, and whimpers would drip from his lips like they were popsicles under a scorching sun. 

   Lance hadn’t thought like this in years and he hated the way it made his chest feel hollow and pained at the same time. He ran his hands through his hair. It had only been an hour since his captors had last visited, but it felt like months. Everything seemed so hopeless. Without rest, water, or food, time dragged on. He hadn’t even known it could pass so slowly until he found himself in constant pain and staring at nothing but metal floors for hours on end. 

   The door swung open and the red paladin winced when it slammed against the opposing wall. His shaking spread from his hands to the rest of his body and he ducked his head lower into his hands. He wanted to hide, he didn’t want them to hurt him on camera again. Lance could suffer through the pain over and over again, if only he knew his friends and family wouldn’t have to see it. He couldn’t let them see his weakness. 

   “It’s your lucky day,” the person at the door started. Lance’s eyes widened and his head whipped up. He quickly forced the excitement back down his throat when he saw the camera on their shoulder. “Your teammates wanted to be sure you got this message, so they asked us to film it.” The paladin nodded slowly, cautiously, then gulped. They must have responded to the criminals and struck a deal. Eagerness pumped from his heart with every beat, as he stood up to walk behind his captor out of the cell. The alien had waved for him to follow. He was going home, they were coming to save him. He’d get to see Keith again.

   The man was barely conscious, he hardly had any energy to keep himself upright. His footfalls were weak. His ankles gave out a few times on his way to the empty room they wanted him in. But he couldn’t bring himself to feel anything other than the exhilaration of his upcoming freedom. Even when he was thrust unceremoniously into a dark and suspicious room, he remained complacent with their demands, not wanting to risk losing his chance to receive such an important message.

   The escort remained in the lightless room with him and the door closed behind the two. Darkness hung in the silent space for a while longer, too, and Lance started to get nervous, until a blue outline appeared in front of him. He shielded his eyes from the sudden flash, before blinking to adjust to the unexpected change. When he could see again, he was thrilled by what stood before him. 

   “Keith!” He approached the hologram faster than he should have and he struggled to regain his balance. Lance lost sight of the black paladin momentarily as water fell openly from his eyes. He was nothing short of delighted and it was obvious. He knew if he wasn’t so intoxicated on the mere prospect of speaking to his boyfriend, he would have cared about the way his nose was running snot down his face, or the way his skin had become splotched with redness as he cried. But his hunger and pain had ebbed and given way to pure joy. 

   His joy was too strong, however, and he failed to notice the third person in the room or the way she was fabricating the hologram in front of him. The camera didn’t miss her, though.

   “Hey, Lance,” Keith said, words soft as he gingerly greeted the injured man before him. It sounded just like him. God, he hadn’t known how much he’d missed his boyfriend’s voice until he heard it so close to him. “I’m glad to see you’re okay.” Okay was a stretch. He had cuts, bruises, and burns all over his body. His anxiety had been tearing him apart nonstop up until the moment he saw his boyfriend. If he really thought about it, he was very far from okay, but Keith being there made it impossible to really think about it. He made everything feel better. 

   Lance couldn’t say anything back, he just wiped his nose and nodded.

   “I, uh,” Keith’s gaze shifted away from his boyfriend in a skittish manner, giving him the expression and mannerisms of someone guilty. He brushed his hand through the hair draped over his shoulders. Lance stepped closer, urging the man to continue. Heaving a sigh, Keith finally met his boyfriend’s gaze. “We can’t make a deal with them, Lance. There’s a lot going on here, we don’t have the time to come out and get you.” The hologram made an apologetic face. 

   The prisoner felt his heart begin to beat faster. It was overheating, filling his chest with an indescribable pain that quickly infected his whole body. Wounds hurt anew, throbbing in time with his breaking heart. This couldn’t be happening. The paladins wouldn’t give up on him like that. They were his second family; they loved him. And yet… as he heard his boyfriend’s voice, he knew it must be true. His Keith wouldn’t lie to him about something like that. “We all hope you understand.” 

   With that, the image of Keith was gone and so was Lance’s last flicker of hope, both blowing out like candles in an icy breeze. The chill wormed its way into his soul, replacing the momentary joy he’d felt only a few minutes prior. He crumpled to the ground, sobbing. They really didn’t care, they left him stranded to die. Even worse was how his own boyfriend was the one to say it. Lance dragged the back of his wrist along his eyes, before he started wheezing. “Why?” He choked on the words as they tumbled out. 

   The red paladin thought that even if no one else cared, Keith would still coming rushing to save him, no matter what. He knew he’d do that for Keith, at least. Lance was hit with the realization that Keith didn’t really care, he couldn’t, not if he was willing to let him die without shedding so much as a single tear. The black paladin hadn’t even cried. A slight flash of regret in his eyes was all Lance got. 

   Keith’s stance hadn’t wavered, his voice hadn’t cracked; he stood, emotionless, as he delivered his boyfriend’s death sentence. Was he really that willing to let him die? Lance had always imagined his boyfriend being livid if anything ever happened to him and the destruction of that dream left him feeling alone. 

   He’d forgotten all about his promise not to let the camera see his weakness, by then. Even if he had remembered, he would have just thought about how his family, his friends, and his  _ boyfriend _ wouldn’t be hurt by his pain anyway; none of them cared. He murmured questions, asking why no one wanted him to come home safe, why they were more willing to save complete strangers than they were willing to save him. Was he that expendable to everyone? Did they all secretly  _ want _ him gone?

   Lance cried out question after question until he wore his voice out. It had withered just like the rest of him was beginning to do. He curled further in on himself, weeping silently. With that, the criminal holding the camera stopped filming and stepped out of the room. That video was sent to the same places as the last, and the intergalactic gang members all knew this video would urge the Garrison’s response to come faster. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter hurt my soul to write, tbh  
> ;-;


	8. Chapter 8

   There was no doubting the fact that Lance’s heart had broken during that video. Keith couldn’t hold onto the faith that his boyfriend would be fine after the second video appeared in front of him. He’d been flying at top speed, trying to catch up with the slower enemy ship, when it popped up. Keith saw his boyfriend’s hopeful eyes and it made him want to scream. If he could, he’d shout to Lance, telling him that there was no one there to talk to him, no one had responded to the criminals yet; he’d warn him that it was a trick. But he had no way of doing that. He pressed his hands to his chest as his heart batted against his ribcage with worry.

   Then he saw who “wanted to talk to Lance”. He saw his own outline standing before the man, as well as the witch lurking in the background, projecting the image. The look of adoration on Lance’s face also didn’t go unnoticed. He was so clearly in love with the hologram, he so obviously trusted it. It pained Keith. He shouldn’t trust that fraud.

   The scene gave him a bittersweet pain. On the one had, he was proud his face alone sparked such a confidence and trust in Lance. On the other, it was excruciating. His enemies were using it against his boyfriend. They were hurting him with Keith’s face. How could anyone do something that cruel? 

   As the hologram began to talk, the brunet’s smile and hope slowly dwindled, and he could see it in the upward slant of his eyebrows and the way his shoulders sagged. He had to watch the trust leave Lance’s eyes as he heard the awful words spoken in his boyfriend’s very own voice. It made him want to cry alongside the red paladin. It wasn’t true. None of it was true. 

   By the time the video had ended, Keith was ripping his helmet off and dragging his gloved palms along his cheekbones to collect the saltwater. When his pain gave way to anger, his tears ended and he shoved his helmet back on. He was ready to go in, guns blazing. Not one of those bastards would see even an  _ ounce _ of mercy from him. The closest they’d get to mercy was a quick death, rather than the drawn out and painful one Keith knew they deserved. And that was only because he didn’t have the time for his own selfish revenge. Lance would always come first, no matter how tough things were for the black paladin in battles, he’d always, always, take care of his boyfriend before himself. 

   Pidge had seen the clip, too, and she recognized the look of anger in Keith’s eyes when she opened up video communication with him. “Now calm down,” she said, cautiously. “You can’t just go rushing in there. You have to think this through. For Lance’s sake.” Even in Keith’s rage, he recognized the danger of barging in suddenly, without thinking. He’d messed up before doing that, he wouldn’t do it again. Every single mistake put Lance in danger. 

   He nodded at his teammate, agreeing to consider his actions before doing anything reckless. Another incoming call appeared across his windshield, and he quickly answered it. Both Hunk’s and Allura’s visages spread across the screen next to Pidge’s. They must be at the Garrison if their signal was strong enough to reach twenty hours away. 

   “Did you guys get those messages?” Allura’s voice revealed no emotion as she asked about the sensitive topic. The red rings around her eyes concealed a lot less, however, as did the wince that passed her features when Pidge and Keith nodded. “Well, we’re calling to let you know we’re wormholing to your location.”

   “And we’re bringing an army.” Shiro’s voice was there, but no picture accompanied it. “We’re sorry it took so long. Someone filtered out the message before the video, thinking it was some sort of spam email. Maybe it had some benefit though.” 

   “Benefit?!” Keith was fuming; the fires of anger were licking at his arms and boiling his blood. He felt guilty at the way he raised his voice at his brother, but he was too outraged to stop. “They hurt him! How could that, in any way, be a benefit?!” One fist bunched at his side while the other gripped the controls harder. The stars outside of his lion blurred together as he thought about what could be happening to his boyfriend.

   Those screams were horrid and he couldn’t stop hearing them. He kept blinking, trying to bring the space in front of him into focus, but more water would replace every drop his eyelashes flicked off. Lance thought Keith didn’t care about him and it was heartbreaking. It wasn’t like Lance hadn’t felt that way before, his anxiety made him worry constantly. But since he and Keith started dating, the black paladin had always been there to help him through it; he could assure his boyfriend that Keith wasn’t the same as his exes, that he wouldn’t abandon him. How much of a hypocrite did he seem like now? After Lance had seen his face and heard his voice tell him he was being abandoned, would he ever believe Keith when he said he was there for him? If only he’d been faster--

   “Benefit as in an element of surprise.” Keith was stirred out of his haze. “If we’d gotten the message before, we would have responded immediately. But since we didn’t, we had Allura and Hunk to advise us on what to do. We’re sending an army, now, too. On your command, of course,” Shiro said, silent after, waiting for his brother’s response.

   “I’ll let you know when we find the ship,” he muttered, after clearing his throat of the uncertainty he felt. The black paladin wasn’t convinced, but there was nothing he could do; delaying the attack wasn’t an option, they had no more than eight hours left. Even within that timespan, there were so many terrible things that could happen to Lance. So many versions of hell.

   It wasn’t long until they made it to the enemy ship again. Its cannons were firing and landing the moment they arrived. They’d been expecting the green and black paladins, but they weren’t expecting the army that warped in as soon as the first shot was fired and Keith gave the order. Suddenly, their numbers were swarming the cannons, and Keith smiled when he felt the odds begin to turn in their favor.

   But alas, it was too good to be true. The enemy ship had gotten close to the other criminals in the gang and they requested backup. It came in sizes and strengths at par with the Garrison’s, sending the situation back to its bleak beginning. As if recognizing Keith as the most eager to get on board the ship, the enemies circled him and kept him in place with weak shots. Each takedown seemed to be replaced with three new ships, they were blocking his only path to Lance. He tried using the jaw blade, he tried running them over, but neither were proving effective enough. 

   The ships almost seemed liquid, dripping into any gaps Keith created before he could. It was a flood he found himself completely unable to avoid. They were above and below him, too, slowly closing in, until he had half the urge to try rocketing himself to the enemy mothership with his jetpack alone. Luckily, Allura stepped in. Firing the laser at the end of Blue’s tail, she took out a stream of fighter jets and created a gap that Keith was quick enough to fill. They continued going like this until Keith was close enough to find his way into the ship with Lance. Allura left Keith’s side without a word, knowing he was too focused on his goal for any thank you. 

_    I’m going to prove to you that I mean it when I say I’m always going to be there for you; that the hologram you saw wasn’t me.  _ The black paladin made it in the same way the team had before, but this time was met with a prepared group of criminals. They were nothing. Drawing his blade and activating it, he took the closest alien down before turning to the rest with a look that said, “you’re next”. The fight commenced, but he knew he wouldn’t lose.  _ I’ll prove it, or I’ll die trying. _


	9. Chapter 9

   When Lance had once again been returned to his cell, he was still sobbing. His body simply refused to stop shaking, so he almost didn’t notice the ship doing the same. It rocked solidly to one side, then back the other way, but his body felt too numb to notice. Then the alarms started, and he finally shook himself from his crying long enough to notice something was up. He watched the flashing, red lights shining underneath his cell door. They spun in time with the blaring noises throughout the ship. Lance covered his ears and returned his forehead to rest against his knees. 

   The man figured that, best case scenario, the ship was about to explode and he’d never have to worry about facing the people back on Earth. He didn’t want to have to meet their eyes. These people who’d abandoned him so easily and had done so, even after seeing what the enemies had done to him. He felt so much more lost than he had before.

   Hurtful words wouldn’t stop repeating in his mind. Shouts of being dumb, ugly, useless, or unimportant kept ringing in his eardrums. He imagined the looks of disdain his friends and family probably gave the weakness he displayed on the screen. Before, he’d been starving, but now he felt too sick to eat. Lance felt the lump in his throat ache and he lost his appetite completely. He hoped the alarms signaled his death, he was too ashamed to see anyone he cared about, now. Too ashamed to admit he’d been so weak. As he choked on his whimpers, he was too delusional to know that the alarms meant the opposite of what he’d hoped. They meant his salvation, not his end. 

   He unfurled his legs began nervously scratching his stomach. The criminal who’d escorted him back to his cell had also left a deep cut in that same place, when she’d pushed Lance into the broken and sharp ground. It was already bleeding a lot, but his previous curled position had applied enough pressure to decelerate the flow. Now that the pressure was gone, however, it ran freely down his bruised skin. With every absent-minded scratch, the paladin extended the gash’s length and increased its blood flow. He’d lost so much since getting there, it didn’t take long for his mindfulness to slip entirely from his form. The blood loss combined with the shock pushed him over the edge and into the cold embrace of unconsciousness. Or was it merely the cold embrace of the floor?

   Part of Keith’s dream had come true. There he was, running through the corridors at the same breakneck speed he’d seen himself running at in his dream. Much to his sanity’s appreciation, he didn’t have to listen to screams as a guide. He’d cut down every enemy at the entrance, and any other criminal he ran into was being given the same treatment. An alien scurried out from around one corner and into his line of sight. He doubled his speed, raising his sword in an unspoken threat, before the woman spotted him, too, and disappeared before his eyes. He saw the fear on her face and recognized the crazed look it gave her. She was the witch in the background of the second video! Keith vowed to give her special treatment next time he saw her. And by special, he meant bloody and painful. 

   “Keith, do you have him yet?” Hunk screeched and the sound of a lion being hit echoed in Keith’s ears.

   “No, not yet, Hunk.” Keith rounded a corner and stumbled across the dungeon of the ship. His heart jumped into his mouth and he said, “I’ll tell you when I have him.” After that, he shut off his comms. He stabbed through each cell door’s keypad as he passed it, effectively destroying the locks. The man was met with empty room after empty room, and he started to fear the worst. What if they’d already taken Lance somewhere and killed him because the Garrison refused to make a deal?

   With that thought, and only two doors left, panic made his feet heavy. The next cell he peered into, however, wasn’t empty, but it still made his body drag. He nearly gagged when he saw the amount of blood in the cell, and he would later be embarrassed to admit he’d focused on the blood for a full ten seconds before he’d even noticed his boyfriend. Keith couldn’t tell if he was alive when he rushed over. He cradled the man’s face in one of his hands while he checked his pulse with the other. His face was caked in dried blood and tears. He rubbed the flakes off with his thumb, leaving his own tears in an untouched trail down his face.

   “You’re gonna be fine, you’re gonna be fine,” he murmured, noting the weak pitter patter of a pulse beneath his fingers. “Please be fine.” The black paladin hadn’t packed any medical supplies before storming the ship and he began to regret it. He opted for speed being the next best plan, and he slid both hands underneath Lance to pick him up. The red paladin stirred from his unconscious state the moment he felt himself being lifted. His eyes flew open, wide but unseeing.

   “Please, put me down! They’re not coming, don’t hurt me anymore!” The man was throwing his arms about wildly, hitting Keith with weak punches and trying to shove him away. “They’re not coming!” He’d lost too much blood and had too few nutrients in his system to cause any real harm, but Keith backed off regardless. The second the two weren’t touching anymore, Lance curled in on himself and began crying, babbling pleas to be left alone. Keith approached him again, slowly, and pressed a hand gingerly against his boyfriend’s.

   “No one’s gonna hurt you,” he hummed, feeling the shaking of the skin beneath his own. Wrapping his fingers around the quaking man’s wrist, he added more. “It’s just me.” Lance yanked his hand back, whipping his head back and forth in a firm declaration of disagreement. He ducked his nose between his bunched up knees. Keith tried again, this time letting a palm rest against his boyfriend’s hair. He slid it back, unhurriedly, until it sat at the back of the paladin’s neck, where he rubbed it in circles. “Look at me,” he hummed, to which he received another negative head movement. He added a second hand, placing it back on the crying man’s cheek. Scooting closer, he put his helmet against Lance’s forehead. “It’s just me.”

   The red paladin had finally stopped shaking and he gradually met Keith’s eyes. He took an arm from around his knees and wiped it along his nose, before sliding a bit away from Keith. His eyes were no longer unseeing, but they still didn’t show belief or trust in what he was seeing. “Who-” He began coughing into his lap. “Who are you? Why do you look like Keith?” He’d backed himself all the way into the corner and he pointed an accusatory and bloodied finger at the black paladin. 

   Keith stayed where he was so as not to further frighten the man in the corner. “Because I  _ am _ Keith,” he answered slowly. Lance shook his head harshly back and forth, more tears falling from his eyes. He buried his head against his knees again.

   “You can’t be! Keith said he wasn’t coming. You can’t be him!” His nails dug into his shins, pressing tiny moons into the flesh there. He turned his head to the side and coughed more, urging Keith to calm him down faster when specks of blood landed on the floor where he’d aimed. A long sniff came from Lance. “You’re cruel! I’m already miserable enough, why would you make it worse by dangling things I can’t have in front of me?” A wail left his lips as he dragged his arm along his nose again. 

   “Look at me Lance!” Keith took his helmet off and put it on the ground next to him with a clatter. His actions were fierce and quick as he crawled toward Lance, but his eyes were soft and his eyebrows were curved in concern. He put his hands on either side of the man’s face. “Just look at me,” he mumbled. “I never said I wasn’t coming, that wasn’t me! Just,” The black paladin pulled his boyfriend against his chest. “Just trust me.” Lance was too weak to fight back, now, and he let himself get tugged into the warm embrace. 

   “Stop it.” He sucked in air, ready to beg the criminals to stop again, but a familiar scent filled his nose. The red paladin pressed his nose to Keith’s neck, surprised to find the authentic smell there. He blinked, gently pushing back and finally looking into, and really seeing, the man’s eyes. Reaching a hand up to squish his cheek, he pushed against the wet underside of the black paladin’s eyes. “You’re-” he coughed at the floor again. “You’re actually him.”

   Keith kissed Lance’s forehead, yanking him back into a hug. “Yes, yes, I’m actually your boyfriend.” He cried into brunet hair, rubbing his fingers against Lance’s back.

   “But you said…” His voice came out cracking, splitting at the seams. “You said you couldn’t come, why are you here?” His breath was hot against Keith’s neck, but he was just happy there was breath to feel.

   “That was never me, I went after you the moment you were gone. I’m so sorry I took so long. I should have been here sooner.” Lance mumbled a response too slurred for Keith to understand, but the fact that the arms around his waist tightened told him it was a positive one. “I’m always gonna save you, Lance. No matter what.” He felt hair brush against his cheek in a nod, then he reached out to grab his helmet. Placing it over his head, he turned the comms on again. He picked up Lance and told the others he’d found him.

   “Oh, good. We’ve got the red lion and his bayard’s inside, so we’ll all wormhole back to Earth as soon as you both are on board Black. Okay?” Keith agreed with Pidge’s plan, sprinting out of the cell and back towards where he’d landed his lion. He tried to bounce Lance as little as possible. 

   The two made it about halfway without running into anyone. When they did cross paths with an enemy, Keith was both infuriated and excited. He figured the witch was the only one who’d elicit such a mixed reaction, since he had a personal vendetta against her more than anyone else.

   “Well if it isn’t Asshole of the Week,” he snarled, skidding to a halt in front of the woman. She smiled in response, approaching the two men with a confident posture. The black paladin put down the barely conscious Lance, leaning him against the wall with a lingering grip to his wrist. He drew his sword, stepping back up to the witch and mirroring her posture. Fire gripped his neck, making his breath scald his tongue as he narrowed his eyes. His pupils were slits, framed by yellow, as too much fury ran in his veins to keep calm. 

   “Me?” The woman purred, placing a hand incredulously against her chest. “I’m sorry, but I wasn’t the one who refused to save him!” Keith lunged at her, a growl leaving his lips. She disappeared again and his sword nicked the wall behind where she’d been. Her figure reappeared next to Lance and Keith launched himself at her once again.

   “Liar!” He’d missed again. “You  _ were _ the one!” 

   “Oh, but Lance doesn’t think that, now does he? Who did he hear it from, hm?” She was behind him when she placed a hand on each of Keith’s shoulders, whispering just loud enough for both men to hear. “Lance, who told you? Who said you weren’t important enough to save?” The red paladin covered his ears.

   “Stop it!”

   “Who told you that you weren’t  _ worth _ it?” Keith shoved her off his back and to the ground. He pounded his boot against her chest, pinning her there. His every breath felt venomous, he was so angry. His sentences came out as hisses, his sword flailed unrestrainedly, inches from her face. 

   “Leave him the fuck alone! You’ve already put him through more hell than he could ever deserve and I am,” he jabbed his blade closer to her throat, “ _ this close _ to gutting you.” She flashed an innocent smile in retaliation, disappearing again. He saw her across the hallway, and he chased after her teleporting form. Every time he got close, she’d vanish and make an appearance next to Lance again, whispering insults Keith couldn’t hear. He realized this battle would take strategy, not brute strength. 

   Stationing himself in front of his boyfriend, he watched her shift to a position away from the two. She wagged her finger, trying to draw him closer. He made a movement like he was preparing to follow her plan and go after her. He drew his feigned movement back once she teleported out of sight. A second later, she was in front of him with a smirk that quickly fell. She spotted Keith and stumbled backwards, before teleporting away again. Recognizing what her pattern meant, he switched his sword into a dagger again and awaited her reappearance. The woman flashed into sight a few feet away and Keith quickly flicked his wrist, sending the shortened blade right into her stomach. She crumpled. 

   Keith took back his blade and slipped it away, still bloodied. He scooped his unconscious boyfriend into his arms and made the rest of the trek to his lion. Keeping him to his chest, he settled himself into the pilot’s chair. The leader briefly checked for a pulse before taking off.

   “You’re gonna be fine,” he promised, gripping his waist harder. “I know you are.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the end, my friends. :)

   They’d all wormhole jumped back to Earth, and Keith had scurried to the cryopods immediately upon landing, not caring that he was stumbling and bumping into things. He glanced between the man in his arms and the floor beneath his feet. Coran had a pod ready, and they quickly shoved the injured paladin inside. Keith refused to leave his boyfriend’s side, even when the rest of the paladins made it in and offered to take over watching him.

   There was a meeting to review the gains and losses of the battle, and it had to be held in the room with Lance, since none of the paladins would leave it. Shiro informed them that there had been no casualties. All the backup ships had been remotely controlled, so the only soldiers whose lives were in danger were the paladins themselves. Keith knew Lance would be happy to learn that no one had died for his sake. 

   The meeting ended, and everyone passed out from exhaustion shortly after. Keith didn’t feel the same draw to sleep, however, as he stared into the pod holding Lance. He pressed one palm to the glass, following it with his forehead. His eyes darted to trace Lance’s features; dragging his gaze across the subtle and cute dip of his nose, the pleasant arch of his brows, and the plump sweep of his lips. He shut his lids, resting the flat of his other hand against the curve of the pod. 

   Keith could have fallen asleep like that, nose nudging the glass and ears listening to the calming whir of the pod. But he heard the swish that accompanied the opening of an airtight seal and he stepped back. His eyelids beat a few times before staying open. There was a soft breath from behind the fog of the pod, and his boyfriend tumbled into his arms. “I’ve got you,” Keith whispered, bringing the two to a sitting position on the floor. Lance’s gaze fluttered, before he met the black paladin’s soft look and smiled. He curled further into the embrace, before clutching Keith’s back and drifting to sleep. The man watched the brunet’s peaceful slumber for a few minutes, before joining him in calming unconsciousness. 

   It had been months since all that, and Lance had, for the most part, moved past the trauma of it. The two men were preparing for a celebratory night out with the rest of the paladins, having won another battle the day before. They sat on the fence around their back porch, enjoying each other’s company, before they had to share it with the others. They’d been chatting about their previous battles, while each traced the lingering scars on the other’s skin. 

   “Hey, Keith?” The man in question hummed in reply, a nonverbal request for Lance to continue with his statement. “Thank you.” Keith’s brows furrowed as he shifted his stare from the warm horizon to the warm eyes of his boyfriend. He gripped Lance’s hand and smiled confusedly, scooting closer. “I mean, I know I tend to be a damsel in distress,” he said with a soft laugh. “So, thanks for always saving me anyway.” Keith pulled Lance in for a chaste kiss.

   “There’s nothing to thank me for,” he started, eyes shut and words fanning across Lance’s lips. “You’re my partner. Partners protect each other.” 

   The two sat there, noses brushing and voices silent, for a few more minutes. They knew they should have left to meet up with the others a while ago, but something more pressing kept the two right where they were, though neither could put a name to it. Keith forced himself back; it was like pulling two magnets apart and he hated having to do it. Lance’s eyes opened and he gripped his boyfriend’s wrists in a vain attempt to keep him close. The brunet watched his boyfriend deny his grip and fall to a kneeling position in the grass. He scooped Lance’s hands up, bringing them to his lips to kiss the scarred knuckles. His breath wafted over the skin, before he began to speak.

   “You know I’m always going to do everything I can to protect you, right?” He peered at the man on the railing through his lashes, looking back down when he nodded. “But I hope I won’t always have to protect my boyfriend.” He squinted his eyes, forcing himself not to look into the brokenhearted face of his boyfriend. He tightly gripped the man’s hands, marveling at the soft skin beneath his touch and refusing to let him leave until he finished. Releasing one hand, he reached into his pocket. His ears got red and hot when he pulled a velvet box out of the fabric of his pants. “I was hoping I could protect my husband, instead?” He finally met the watery gaze of the man above him. 

   Lance let out a strangled noise before he collapsed on top of Keith, cradling his face and peppering it with kisses. “You dumbass!” He sniffed and slid his hands down his arms and around his wrists. “Don’t scare me like that!” 

   “Sorry,” Keith said. “Is that a no, then?” He bit his lip when Lance ducked his head.

   “Dummy,” he whispered, hands shaking and coming together around the velvet box. “It’s a yes. Obviously.” Keith’s face stretched into a wide grin and he pushed himself off his back, bringing Lance to a kneel with him. He finally opened the box and took the ring out, slipping it on Lance’s finger instead. He kissed away each of his fiancé’s tears before placing a fat smooch across his lips. Pulling both of them off the grass, he lifted Lance into his arms and spun around. The man screeched, clinging to Keith. “Hey, hey! Put me down!”

   “I love you,” Keith said, twirling coming to a halt. He let another kiss linger against his fiancé’s lips. 

   “I love you, too.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know how I did :)


End file.
